Totally of Topic: I fell in love with Yoga (and just finished the 30-day yoga challenge)

About a month ago I was stressed out to the point where I felt like my head is about to explode. I was right in the middle of the exam weeks and all I did was study. But after not having left my appartement for four days there was no chance I could fit any more information into my head. To be honest I have no idea why I thought of it but an idea popped up in my head: I gonna try out yoga. Right now.

I have to confess I’ve never been interested in yoga at all. To me it was just breathing in and breathing out and lying around on your matt. So no challenge nothing interesting, just a hype I don’t need to participate in.
But when I searched youtube for some instruction videos and tried out the first one I was so surprised. It was indeed exhausting but most off relaxing. My mind was cleared and my headache almost gone. For the next few days whenever I needed a break from studying I did this very cycle of yoga poses and then when back to my books – all freshed up and ready to go down to it.
But soon I decided I need more. After searching the net once again I came across a 30 day yoga challenge. Every day you are provided with a new yoga workout. The instructor Erin Motz explains what today’s poses are good for and walks you through it. I just finished this challenge and was once more surprised how versatile yoga is. I feel really bad for the bad impression I had of yoga when actually I didn’t know anything about it. The different exercises reached from relaxation to bathing in sweat when the set was for abs or losing weight. I’m now putting together my very own workout with the poses I liked best from all the different videos. If I remember correctly there will be another challenge sometime in autumn – I’m definitely on board.

Since I’ve started out with yoga I noticed a few changes. Of course there is progress within yoga itself. There are certain poses that flow much more easily than they did a the beginning. But I also grew more aware of my breathing. Before I never knew what this breathe in and out stuff in yoga is all about. Recently I read a little story about the origin of the importance of it in yoga. It comes from the believe that every person has a certain number of breaths in life. The deeper you breathe the less breaths you take thus you live longer. After a some days of yoga I realised that I wasn’t just consciously breathing during my practice as you are supposed to move with your breathe but I also started to be more aware of it in everyday life. I try to breathe deeper and guess what? It feels good. Furthermore, I also realised that I began doing little stretches when I was sitting around doing nothing. Just tiny things like rolling your shoulders back and forth etc. and so far I can say once more it feels very good. Especially with the shoulders where I’m always quite tight it helps to soften. By now I’m even doing these things unconsciously.

Another point I like about yoga is that you can constantly challenge yourself. There are of course certain poses that just don’t work out on the first try. But when you constantly stick to the training you can soon see improvement. The stretch goes a little bit further than yesterday, you can hold your balance longer than the day before. It gives you a positive vibe to see how you are progressing.
Moreover, yoga is extremely versatile. If there is a certain flow or pose you really don’t get along with there is so much more you can do. I was deeply impressed to see how many different types of yoga there are. During the challenge one day was for abs, another one for good sleep or one for strengthening the lower back. Whatever it is you might need I’m sure there is a certain yoga practice for it.

Before I end this post I’d like to encourage anybody who hasn’t tried yoga out before to just go ahead and do it. Even if you have a rather bad opinion about it, give it a chance you might be as surprised as I am.